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The Irish Muslim community is growing, mostly through increased immigration (see Islam in Ireland). The largest is the Anglican Church of Ireland. Ireland's largest religious denomination is Roman Catholicism (about 70% for the entire island, and over 90% for the Republic ), and most of the rest of the population adhere to one of the various Protestant denominations. Culturally however, the Irish are undeniably Celtic.

Both positions are difficult to confirm because the information is relatively new. Others theorize that the pre-Celtic population of Ireland may have had roots in common with the Basque people. Some theorize that, although Basque is certainly not a Celtic language, there may have been Celto-Basque cultural contact on the Iberian Peninsula. Although for many years the Irish were believed to be of Celtic origin, recent DNA evidence shows that both the Irish and the Welsh (and to a much lesser degree Scotland and England) have many genetic traits in common with the people of the Basque region.

However the greater part (80%) of the Irish population descends from the original inhabitants of the island who came after the end of the Ice Age. Over the last 1,000 years, there have been influences by the Vikings, who founded several ports, including Dublin, and Normans, with some admixture to the gene pool. Early historical and genealogical records note the existance of dozens of different peoples (Cruthin, Attacotti, Conmaicne, Éoganacht, Érainn, Soghain, to name but a few). Ireland has been inhabited for at least 9,000 years, although little is known about the neolithic inhabitants of the island.

This achievement evokes mixed feelings in many Irish people. The Republic has done well in the Eurovision Song Contest, being the most successful country in the competition with seven wins. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion of style, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Canadian Loreena McKennitt. There are also contemporary music groups that stick closer to a "traditional" sound, including Altan, Gaelic Storm, Lúnasa, and Solas.

Nevertheless, Irish music has shown an immense inflation of popularity with many attempting to return to their roots. This trend can be seen more recently in the work of bands and individuals like U2, Clannad, The Cranberries, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, Boyzone, Westlife and The Pogues. During the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction between traditional and rock musicians became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing over between these styles of playing as a matter of course. Before too long, groups and musicians including Horslips, Van Morrison and even Thin Lizzy were incorporating elements of traditional music into a rock idiom to form a unique new sound.

Irish and Scottish traditional music are similar. This revival was led by such groups as The Dubliners, The Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers and Sweeney's Men and individuals like Sean Ó Riada and Danny O'Flaherty. During the 1960s, and inspired by the American folk music movement, there was a revival of interest in the Irish tradition. In the middle years of the 20th century, as Irish society was attempting to modernise, traditional music tended to fall out of favour, especially in urban areas.

The Irish tradition of folk music and dance is also widely known. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, a strong indigenous tradition of painting emerged, including such figures as John Butler Yeats, William Orpen, Jack Yeats and Louis le Brocquy. The early history of Irish visual art is generally considered to begin with early carvings found at sites such as Newgrange and is traced through Bronze age artifacts, particularly ornamental gold objects, and the religious carvings and illuminated manuscripts of the mediæval period.
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His 1922 novel Ulysses is sometimes cited as the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century and his life is celebrated annually on June 16th in Dublin as the Bloomsday celebrations. Although not a Nobel Prize winner, James Joyce is widely considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. In more recent times, Ireland has produced four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe with the earliest examples dating from the 6th century; Jonathan Swift, still often called the foremost satirist in the English language, was wildly popular in his day (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, etc.) and remains so in modern times amongst both children and adults.

For an island of relatively small population, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature in all its branches, mainly in English. Prominent Irish sporting stars include:. Kildare, which is just outside Dublin. The 2006 Ryder Cup will be held in the K Club in Co.

Golf is an extremely popular sport in Ireland and Golfing Tourism is a major industry. Boxing is also an all-island sport governed by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association. The horse racing sector is largely concentrated in the central east of the Republic. The Republic is noted for the breeding and training of race horses and is also a large exporter of racing dogs.

Greyhound racing and horse racing are both popular in Ireland: greyhound stadiums are well attended and there are frequent horse race meetings. The IFA still retains All-Ireland cups and trophies at its Belfast HQ. The Republic of Ireland made it to the World Cup in 1990 (where they made it to the quarter-finals), 1994 and 2002. Northern Ireland qualified for the Football World Cup finals in 1958 (where they made it to the quarter-finals), 1982 and 1986.

It was not until 1950 that FIFA directed the Associations to only select players from within their respective territories, and in 1953 FIFA further clarified that the FAI's team was to be known only as "Republic of Ireland", and the IFA's team only as "Northern Ireland". Both also referred to their respective teams as "Ireland". However, both the IFA and FAI continued to select their teams from the whole of Ireland, with some players earning international caps for matches with both teams. Despite the new organisation being initially blacklisted by the Home Nations' football associations, the Association was recognised by FIFA in 1923 and organised its first international fixture in 1926 (against Italy in Turin).

Following an incident in which, despite an earlier promise, the IFA moved an Irish Cup final replay from Dublin to Belfast, the clubs based in the Free State set up a new Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS) - now known as the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) - in 1921. However, some clubs based outside Belfast felt that the IFA largely favoured Ulster-based, Protestant clubs in such matters as selection for the national team. Football was being played in Ireland since the 1860s, but remained a minority sport outside of Ulster until the 1880s. The Irish Football Association (IFA) was originally the governing body for football (soccer) throughout the island.

The same is true of cricket. Consequently in international rugby, the Ireland team represents the whole island. The Irish rugby team includes players from north and south, and the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport on both sides of the border. All GAA players, even at the highest level, are amateurs and receive no wages.

All major GAA games are played here, including the semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland championships. The headquarters of the GAA (and the main stadium) is located at the 83,000 capacity Croke Park in north Dublin. The GAA is organised on an all-Ireland basis with all 32 counties competing; traditionally, counties first compete within their province, in the provincial championships, and the winners then compete in the All-Ireland senior hurling or football championships. All Gaelic games are governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), with the exception of Ladies' Gaelic Football, which is governed by a separate organisation.

Along with Camogie, Ladies' Gaelic football, handball and rounders, they make up the national sports of Ireland, collectively known as Gaelic Games. Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular sports in Ireland. On July 28, 2005, the Provisional IRA (PIRA) announced the end of its armed campaign and on September 25, 2005 international weapons inspectors supervised the full disarmament of the PIRA. In 2001 the armed police force in the north (which operated much like an army with armoured cars etc.), the Royal Ulster Constabulary (or RUC for short), was replaced by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland).

Violence has greatly decreased since the signing of the accord. In 1998, following a Provisional IRA cease-fire, the Good Friday Agreement was concluded and attempts began to be made to restore self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power sharing between the two communities. Owing to the civil unrest the British government suspended home rule in 1972 and imposed direct rule. Other groups, legal and illegal on the unionist side, and illegal on the nationalist side, began to participate in the violence and the period known as the "Troubles" began.

It was during this period of civil unrest that the paramilitary Provisional IRA, who favoured the creation of a united Ireland, began its campaign against Unionist rule. Nationalist grievances at unionist discrimination within the state eventually led to large civil rights protests in 1960s, which the government suppressed heavy-handedly, most notably on "Bloody Sunday". Consequently, Catholics could not participate in the government, which at times openly encouraged discrimination in housing and employment. However the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland each voted almost entirely along sectarian lines, meaning that the government of Northern Ireland (elected by "first past the post") was always controlled by the Ulster Unionist Party.

From its creation in 1921 until 1972 Northern Ireland enjoyed limited self-government within the United Kingdom, with its own parliament and prime minister. By the early 2000s, it had become one of the richest countries (in terms of GDP per capita) in the European Union, moving from being a net recipient to a net contributor and from a population with net emigration to one with net immigration. That decade saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger". The state was plagued by poverty and emigration until the 1990s.

In 1949 the state declared itself to be a republic and that henceforth it should be described as the Republic of Ireland. The state was neutral during World War II but offered some assistance to the Allies. The party introduced a new constitution in 1937 which renamed the state to simply "Éire or in the English language, Ireland" (preface to the Constitution). However in the 1930s Fianna Fáil, the party of the opponents of the treaty, were elected into government.

For its first years the new state was governed by the victors of the Civil War. In 1922, in the middle of this civil war, the Irish Free State came into being. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was narrowly ratified by the Dáil in December 1921 but was rejected by a large minority, resulting in the Irish Civil War which lasted until 1923. Secession for the rest of Ireland led directly to the Civil War, as militant nationalists split into two factions and turned against one another.

The remaining six, in the north-east, remained within the Union as Northern Ireland. In 1922, following the Anglo-Irish War, twenty-six counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State. The late 19th and early 20th century saw a vigorous but unsuccessful campaign for Irish home rule, followed by the eclipse of moderate nationalism by militant separatism. The 19th century saw the Great Famine of the 1840s in which at least 1 million Irish people died and over a million were forced to emigrate.

The whole island of Ireland would remain within the United Kingdom, ruled directly by the UK Parliament in London. In 1800 the Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union which, in 1801, merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
. The new English Protestant ruling class was known as the Protestant Ascendancy.

After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics were barred from voting or attending the Irish Parliament. English rule was largely limited to the area around Dublin, known as the Pale, and Waterford, but this began to expand in the 16th century with the final collapse of the Gaelic social and political superstructure at the end of the 17th century, as a result of the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland and English and Scottish Protestant colonisation in the Plantations of Ireland, which established English control over the whole island. In 1172, King Henry II of England gained Irish lands by the granting of the 1155 Bull Laudibiliter to him by then English Pope Adrian IV, and from the 13th century, English law began to be introduced. Eventually they settled in Ireland and established many towns, including the modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford.

This era was interrupted in the 9th century by 200 years of intermittent warfare with waves of Viking raiders who plundered monasteries and towns. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island. Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving Latin learning during the Early Middle Ages. The druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new faith.

Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. Tradition maintains that in AD 432, St. The exact relationship between Rome and the tribes of Hibernia is unclear; the only references are a few Roman writings. Native accounts are confined to Irish poetry, myth, and archaeology.

Ptolemy in AD 100 records Ireland's geography and tribes. Many scholars, however, now favour a view that emphasises cultural diffusion from overseas over significant colonisation.The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia. They are traditionally thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of waves between the 8th and 1st centuries BC, with the Gael, the last wave of Celts, conquering the island and dividing it into five or more kingdoms. The Iron Age in Ireland is associated with people now known as Celts.

The Bronze Age, which began around 2500 BC, saw the production of elaborate gold and bronze ornaments and weapons. Stone age inhabitants arrived sometime after 8000 BC, with the culture progressing from Mesolithic to high Neolithic over the course of three or four millennia. It has been inhabited for about 9,000 years. Ireland was mostly ice-covered and joined by land to Britain and Europe during the last ice age.

In contrast the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) uses the Tricolour to represent the whole island. St Patrick's Saltire is used to represent the island of Ireland by the all-island Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). The Royal Standard also shows a version of an ancient Irish flag (depicting a harp) in one of its four quadrants. However as the tricolour is the flag of the Republic of Ireland it is not used to represent the island of Ireland, given that the island also includes Northern Ireland.

Patrick's cross, the flag sometimes used for the Kingdom of Ireland and which represented Ireland on the Union Flag after the Act of Union, a green flag with a harp (used by some radical nationalists in the 19th century and which is also the flag of Leinster), a blue flag with a harp used from the 18th century onwards by many nationalists (now the standard of the President of Ireland), and the Irish tricolour. Historically a number of flags were used, including St. While the Tricolour is the official flag of the Republic, there is no universally agreed flag that represents the entire island of Ireland. More details http://www.npws.ie/[1].

http://www.npws.ie/en/PublicationsLiterature/IrishWildlifeManuals/. The volumes are published on an irregular basis by Ireland's National Parks and Wildlife Service. Irish Wildlife Manuals is a series of contract reports relating to the conservation management of habitats and species in Ireland. Ireland has a very rich marine avifauna, with many large seabird colonies dotted around its coastline such as those on the Saltee Islands and Skellig Michael.

About 400 bird species have been recorded in Ireland, many of which are migratory, either arctic birds who come in the winter, or birds such as the Swallow which come from Africa in the summer to breed. See List of Irish Mammals. rabbits and the Brown Rat. Some introduced species have become thoroughly naturalised, e.g.

Some species, such as the Red Fox, Hedgehog, Stoat, and Badger are very common, whereas others, like the Red Deer and Pine Marten are rare and only seen in certain national parks and nature reserves around the island. Only 31 mammal species are native to Ireland, again because it was isolated from Europe by rising sea levels after the Ice Age. The Flora of Ireland. Many different habitat types are found in Ireland, including farmland, open woodland, temperate forests, conifer plantations, peat bogs, and various coastal habitats.

Nevertheless, it is home to hundreds of plant species. Ireland's flora is poorer in species numbers than Britain or mainland Europe because it became an island very soon after the end of the last Ice Age, about 8,000 years ago. These areas are largely spectacularly mountainous and rocky, with beautiful green vistas.
. Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties.

Across Ireland, the 32 counties are still used in sports and in some other cultural areas and retain a strong sense of local identity. For election constituencies, some counties are merged or divided, but constitutionally the boundaries have to be observed. In the Republic, the county boundaries are still adhered to for local government, albeit with Tipperary and Dublin subdivided (some cities also have their own administrative regions). Six of the Ulster counties remain under British sovereignty as Northern Ireland following Ireland's partition in 1922 (the remaining 26 forming present-day Republic of Ireland); since the UK's 1974 reshuffle these county boundaries no longer exist in Northern Ireland for administrative purposes, although Fermanagh District Council is almost identical to the county.

These were further divided into 32 counties for administrative purposes. Previously there were five provinces - Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Meath, comprising the counties of Meath, Westmeath and Longford. In Irish these are referred to as Cúige's ( Cúige - meaning fifths). Ireland is divided into four provinces: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster.

The island's area is 32,477 square miles (84,079 km²). The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent but soft rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle". The island is bisected by the River Shannon, at 161 miles (259 km) the longest river in Ireland or Britain. The highest peak is Carrauntuohill (Irish: Corrán Tuathail), which is 3414 feet (1041 m).

A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains. Another suggestion, although much less used, is the Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA). For this reason, "Britain and Ireland" is commonly used as a more neutral alternative. However, some people, especially in Ireland, take exception to this name, which seems to suggest that both islands belong to Britain.

The island is often referred to as being part of the British Isles. The Ireland Funds, an international fund-raising organisation, tries to help people on both sides find peace and reconciliation through community development, education, arts and culture. Irish and Scottish traditional music have many similarities. Traditional Irish music, for example, though showing some variance in all geographical areas, is, broadly speaking, the same on both sides of the border.

The island also has a shared culture in many other ways. Some trade unions are also organised on an all-Irish basis and associated with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (ICTU) in Dublin, while others in Northern Ireland are affiliated with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the United Kingdom — though such unions may organise in both parts of the island as well as in Britain. Some 92% of the population of the Republic of Ireland and about 44% of Northern Ireland is Roman Catholic. The major religions, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, are organised on an all-island basis.

In a number of respects, the island operates officially as a single entity, for example, in most kinds of sports.
. Up to then, Ireland had been politically divided into a number of different Irish kingdoms (Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Mide, Ulster, and others). From 1541 the Kingdom of Ireland was established by the King of England, though this realm did not cover the whole island till the early 17th century.

Prior to the Government of Ireland Act 1920 the island had been a unified political entity within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1801 until 1922. Politically, Ireland is divided into:. . The population of the island is approximately 5.8 million people; 4.1 million in the Republic of Ireland (1.6 million in Greater Dublin) and 1.7 million in Northern Ireland (0.8 million in Greater Belfast).

It lies in the Atlantic Ocean and it is composed of the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), which covers five sixths of the island (south, east, west and north-west), and Northern Ireland; part of the United Kingdom, which covers the northeastern sixth of the island. Ireland (53°30′N 7°38′W; Irish: Éire) is the third-largest island in Europe. Stephen Roche (cycling). Sonia O'Sullivan (athletics).

Brian O'Driscoll (rugby). Aidan O'Brien (racehorse trainer). Sean Kelly (cycling). Roy Keane (soccer).

Eddie Jordan (Formula One). Eddie Irvine (Formula One). Alex Higgins (snooker). Padraig Harrington (golf).

Kieren Fallon (jockey). Joey Dunlop (motorcycling). Damien Duff (soccer). Ken Doherty (snooker).

Steve Collins (boxing). Carey (hurling). D.J. Peter Canavan (Gaelic football).

George Best (soccer). Northern Ireland remains a region of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland is unofficially known as 'the North', and 'Ulster' (the province of Ulster also includes Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan which are in the Republic). Technically Ireland and Éire are the official names of the state while the "Republic of Ireland" is its official description.

This state is often simply referred to internally and internationally as "Ireland" in English or "Éire" in Irish. The Republic of Ireland, with its capital in Dublin.